{"id":5857,"date":"2005-07-02T22:46:58","date_gmt":"2005-07-02T22:46:58","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/viamedia\/2005\/07\/original-order.html"},"modified":"2005-07-02T22:46:58","modified_gmt":"2005-07-02T22:46:58","slug":"original-order","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/viamedia\/2005\/07\/original-order.html","title":{"rendered":"Original Order"},"content":{"rendered":"

Bill Cork<\/a> reports that the Diocese of Phoenix is going to restore the original order of the Sacraments of Initiation<\/a> and celebrate Confirmation before First Communion. The pastoral letter from the bishop is very good and thorough, even though it is on the web as an evil pdf document. The decision was made through consultation with a task force and the Presbyteral Council, and it was unanimous. So what are they going to do?<\/p>\n

They’re going to stagger the celebration of the sacrament for the older kids, and for those in the 7-9 year old range:<\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n<\/p>\n

\n
\n

Effective immediately, the age for celebration of Confirmation is lowered so that, ordinarily, children baptized as infants will celebrate Confirmation and 1st Eucharist in the same Sacred Liturgy during the third grade. Preparation and celebration of the Sacrament of Reconciliation is to precede Confirmation and should, ordinarily, occur in the second grade.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Very good. Any discussions about the "practical" aspects of this must take a backseat to theology, and the mis-placement of confirmation oh, lo these many decades in many parts of the world has really been a travesty, and done great damage to a proper theological understanding of confirmation itself and the sacraments of initiation as a whole. And, turning to pragmatic considerations, anyway, as we’ve discussed here before, adolescent confirmation, shorn from its baptismal associations and proximity to Eucharist, by 10-15 years in the life of the one celebrating,  has become, in practice, less a sacrament (in perception) than a ritualized sociological marker of, not Christian initiation, but initiation into adulthood (sort of), and, more practically, an tool for blackmail…go through this, and you won’t have to go to religious ed any more. More common than you think. <\/p>\n

\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Bill Cork reports that the Diocese of Phoenix is going to restore the original order of the Sacraments of Initiation and celebrate Confirmation before First Communion. The pastoral letter from the bishop is very good and thorough, even though it is on the web as an evil pdf document. 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The Catholicism comes from her side. Amy grew up in a number of places - Indiana - Washington, DC - Lubbock Texas - Arlington, Virginia - DeKalb, Illinois - Lawrence, Kansas - and Knoxville, Tennessee, where the family settled in 1973. She attended Knoxville Catholic High School, then the University of Tennessee where she majored in history. She received an MA in Church History from Vanderbilt University, where she wrote a thesis on the changing role of women in 19th century American Protestantism, and the ways Scripture was used to justify those changes. She worked as as a teacher in Catholic high schools and a Parish Director of Religious Education and started writing for the diocesan press - the Florida Catholic - in 1988. Amy has written columns for Our Sunday Visitor and Catholic News Service at times over the past twenty years. Her articles have been published in venues ranging from Our Sunday Visitor to the New York Times to Commonweal. 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